Friday, January 14, 2011

Part of the afternoon -- after an hour on the 101 and 405 Freeways -- was whiled away in Culver City at Sony Pictures Animation ...

First thing, I ran into a director I know who is developing a new feature. He said:

I developed this at another studio but they put it in turn-around and I've worked on it here for several months. Doesn't have a title, but we're hoping to get it made. When we finish the script revisions, we hope to get approval for storyboards and then story reels ..."

I won't tell you more about the project becasue A) I have no clue about what it is and (assuming I did) B) I've got no interest in getting reprimanded*.

Meanwhile, a lot of SPA staffers were preparing for Hotel Transylvania meeting (Yes, Virginia, HT is still in pre-production.) And a long teaser for the upcoming Smurfs was being worked on. Look for it in a theater or on a Sony DVD next Fall.)

2) Reprimand for revealing that a character model sheet had changed slightly.

3) Reprimand for putting up proprietary artwork from unreleased animated Sony feature Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs on blog. (One small problem: artwork had nothing to do with movie; was actually a screen grab of a doughnut advertisement.)

Walt didn't have competition, Floyd. Did you ever think that maybe the reason why studios crack down on leaks is because they don't want another studio to steal their idea? Look at Antz vs. Bug's Life, for example. I'd hate it if another studio put into production a project that's similar to the project I've been working on for years - and worse, released before us. A "scoop" on your blog could mean creative heartbreak for hundreds of artists on a show.

And, really, you'd consider it an honor to be fired? I have friends who are out of work and would love to working at one of the studios you'd consider an honor to be fired from.

Nobody should reveal proprietary information that would damage a studio.

That being said, I would submit that the screen shape of "The Simpsons Movie" or a new character model sheet for a well-loved cartoon character or the title of a Disney video sequel that is the same except for a number after it, is not "proprietary" in any meaningful sense.

And when the information is out on the internets for MONTHS and then gets mentioned here (But ... but ... that earlier stuff ... it wasn't OFFICIAL!"), any churlish, pseudo-legalistic reaction is -- what's the word I'm looking for? -- mega-moronic.

Stuff gets read here by maybe twenty thousand people a month. Occasionally something gets linked. Blue Sky Disney and Jim Hill break news all the time. We don't. I think it's important that everybody go spend time with their families, go out and play some touch football, get a LIFE.

A "scoop" on your blog could mean creative heartbreak for hundreds of artists on a show.

The naivete of this statement is staggering. Producers jump from company to company, and those who don't are hanging out with producers from competing companies regularly (sometimes even dating/sleeping with/married to). I've been at two different animation studios where I saw lists of what their competitors had in development, and those lists extended forward into projects that didn't even have artists assigned to them yet. In retrospect, both lists turned out to be accurate (of course there were projects that got dumped or back-burnered, but there was nothing that was released that was a surprise). There's nothing Steve Hulett ever sees that other animation studios haven't long known about.

Wrong. Producers and production people don't stay within the union or non-union network of studios. They hopscotch from studio to studio, regardless of union standing, and regardless of location. They move up and down the California coast, or to Vancouver, or to London, or to New York, as the job requires. And they frequently get inside information from new hires who came from competing companies. And the same small group of people do viz-dev and design work across a range of studios. It's the nature of our business.

It's funny, the one example that someone above gave was 'Antz' and 'A Bug's Life.' Like a blog was going to give up info that wasn't in Jeffrey K's head when he went from Disney to forming DreamWorks. Hulett and the TAG blog just makes a convenient scapegoat for business as usual.